England’s power scrum? It’s more powder puff!
THE England scrum is stuck in reverse gear – which is the exact opposite of the Eddie Jones mission statement. Jones said at the outset of his tenure that one of his main priorities was to restore England’s traditional reputation as a fearsome set-piece force.
Yet, after his first four years in charge, the fault lines were still there. Neal Hatley’s Red Rose scrum took such a battering in the 2019 World Cup final that Jones felt compelled to turn to their Springbok conquerors for a solution, signing their forwards coach, Matt Proudfoot, as Hatley’s replacement.
However, despite Jones taking a leaf out of the “if you can’t beat them get them to join you” manual, Proudfoot has not been able to fix the England scrum shortcomings that his South Africa pack exposed in Yokohama. Instead, they have been laid bare again during this Six Nations campaign.
Jones has first-hand experience of what he wants to recreate, because as Australia coach he was on the receiving end of Martin Johnson’s bruising 2003 world champion pack more than once.
The problem is that Proudfoot’s transition from the Springboks to England has gone off-road and hit the ditch. After a relatively smooth start last season, Proudfoot has endured a grim campaign, which started with having to weather a positive Covid test, and ended with him carrying the can for a forward pack which is a pale shadow of what England expects.
England had the worst scrum in the 2021 SixNations, with the possible exception of Italy. Proudfoot’s counterparts, Wales’ Jonathan Humphreys, France’s William Servat, Scotland’s Pieter de Villiers, and Ireland’s John Fogarty, all produced scrums that were superior in technique and cohesion.
Crucially, England’s rivals also seemed to understand far better what was required of them by referees at the engagement. England appeared to be in a time warp of trying to hit-and-chase on engagement, whereas their opponents were more concerned with adhering to the current laws, which have re-emphasised that both front rows are to provide a solid, stationary platform before the put-in.
England props Mako Vunipola and Kyle Sinckler were in all sorts of bother, especially against Scotland and Ireland, conceding penalties, free kicks, or ground, because they did not observe the new directives that the scrum is in two parts – first, the ‘set’, and then the ‘contest’. The same applied to their understudies, Ellis Genge and Will Stuart.
Where the French and Irish scrums are very disciplined on engagement, England regularly look on edge. When the TV cameras were
“Proudfoot’s transition from Springboks to England has gone off-road and hit the ditch”
above the scrum, you could see frequently that the Red Rose front row was going up, down, or sideways, in their illegal efforts to win the socalled “battle of the shoulders” and generate early momentum.
What the English props, and hookers Jamie George and Luke Cowan-Dickie, had in common was that they were guilty too often of rushing the engagement, and then being off-balance.
This sent exactly the wrong message to referees, most of whom have become much more knowledgeable about scrum than they were – and therefore much more confident in their decision-making.
Referees like Wayne Barnes and Luke Pearce (both England), Romain Poite (France), and Andrew Brace (Ireland) do their scrum homework, including analysis, for instance, on how often props go to ground.
Referees also emphasise in their pre-match front row briefings the paramount importance of not pushing through the mark early, and the requirement to scrummage at a height that props and hookers can maintain.
What England seem to have ignored on Proudfoot’s watch is that there are no longer any benefits of a tighthead like Sinckler being one of the fastest across the gap, as there was in the hit-and-chase era. It is not only outdated, it also leads to an uncoordinated, inefficient engagement.
The key to the scrum now is to be strong and efficient in your set-up, so that you are solid and balanced, and then to switch on the power surge at the put-in. What is interesting, is that this is exactly what South Africa, under Proudfoot’s tutelage, did to England when they dominated the scrums in the first half of the last World Cup final.
The main conclusion that can be drawn from this is that Proudfoot is wrestling with the realisation that the England front row forwards he has at the moment do not have the power or dominance at the scrum that he had with the Springboks. He has also learned the hard way that getting them to hit-and-chase – with the primary aim of winning penalties – has backfired, with his own scrum penalised heavily.
The reality is that while Mako Vunipola and Sinckler can be very effective in the loose, neither has consistently given England scrum superiority, and the same is true of loosehead understudies like Genge and Alec Hepburn.
Whether Stuart, Harry Williams, or Ehren Painter can bring the necessary physical clout at tighthead, or Beno Obano, Tom West or Val Rapava-Ruskin can do the same at loosehead, is for Proudfoot to find out. However, as it stands, the shortage of punishing props detracts from Proudfoot’s capability to get England to scrum for penalties, in the same way he did with the Springboks.
This is a cloud that might have a silver lining if it gets Proudfoot to rethink his strategy and focus on quick, clean, scrum ball being used to create and score tries.
Then other variations come into play, such as the opposition looking to break early to cover the attacking scrum moves but instead, leaving themselves vulnerable to being caught on the hop by a secondary shove, which could either yield a penalty, or a great attacking platform.
The best scrums have all these weapons in their armoury, but at the moment England are firing blanks. Proudfoot’s overriding imperative is to shift into forward gear fast, so that England’s scrum gets back on track and provides the firepower to challenge for Six Nations and World Cups.